Lot of Fortune

lot uhv FOR-chun

greek: Τύχη (Tyche)

Definition

The Lot of Fortune is a point worked out from three positions in your chart — the Sun, the Moon, and the Ascendant (the rising point). You find it with simple arithmetic: in a day chart, Ascendant + Moon − Sun; in a night chart, Ascendant + Sun − Moon. The formula flips with chart sect, your day-or-night birth status. It is also called the Part of Fortune, and the Greek name is kleros tuches.

In Tradition

In Hellenistic and traditional astrology, the Lot of Fortune is the most important of the calculated lots. Astrologers tie it to the body, to how you make your living, to material possessions, and to your outward circumstances. Traditionally it can even act as a second rising point, generating a whole alternative set of twelve houses.

In Practice

Astrologers work out where Fortune falls, then read it by its sign, its house, and the state of its domicile lord — the planet that rules its sign. That ruling planet shows how your material circumstances tend to develop. Counting houses from Fortune itself opens up specialized readings: the eleventh house from Fortune is read for gaining property, and the eighth from Fortune for the circumstances of death (this from Valens). Fortune also has a place in profection-based timing systems, which advance a point through the chart year by year.

Historical Origin

Fortune appears in the earliest Hellenistic texts, including Dorotheus of Sidon (1st century CE), and is discussed at length by Valens, who calls it more "energetic" than the chart's angles for certain judgments. The Greek kleros comes from kleromancy — divination by casting lots.

Etymology

Origin: Latin/Greek. Meaning: Fortune, luck, one's allotted share.

Definition

In Tradition

In Practice

Historical Origin

Etymology

Further Reading